High-flying Emi grounds the Seagulls
EMILIANO MARTINEZ’S stunning man-of-thematch display to keep Brighton at bay did not surprise Villa manager Dean Smith.
After all, he has a 6ft 2in stick to threaten him with in the shape of Tom Heaton.
“You need a goalkeeper with experience and we got it last year with
Tom,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, he was not fit for the start of this season so we invested in another goalkeeper with Premier League experience.
“Emi was ready to be a No1 andArsenal at the time already had Bernd Leno, so the opportunity arose to bring him here. He knows, though, he has got Tom Heaton nipping at his heels all the time.”
On Saturday night, Martinez was like a ballerina in the first half, twisting gracefully to tip Leandro Trossard’s drive over the bar and, from the corner, he extended himself fully again to prevent Dan Burn opening his Brighton account with a far-post header.
Brighton cranked things up a notch in the second half and Martinez was nearly caught out just after the break by Alexis Mac Allister’s shot. The keeper actually dived too far and was relieved to see the ball hit his hip and bounce safely away.
The best of all was an overhand leftarm block of Joel Veltman’s fierce strike from the edge of the area before a less photogenic bundling of the ball around the foot of a post when Danny Welbeck sniffed a late chance.
Veltman admitted: “My effort was blocked by the defender and then Emi Martinez pulls off a great save to keep it out. I was already celebrating.”